08/08/2007 | K2DRH With a cold front and lots of rain on the way, conditions didnt look really good for this years UHF contest. They turned out to be fairly decent on Saturday while the front was coming through. I was amazed at successful runs up to 3456 with stations out past 300 miles that dont often get into the log much above 1296. Even so, there didnt seem to be a great deal of casual activity. Then everything pretty much shut down again Saturday night around 10PM never to return. Sunday was pretty dismal with very few QSOs above 1296. In fact there were very few stations to work at all, and I heard only two stations Id already worked before 8AM. Several hours passed with only a handful of rovers QSOs added to the log and practically no fixed stations. Brightest spot of the day was working KM0T in EN13 up to 3456 and W7XU/R in EN02.

On neither day did I hear a whole lot from the Minnesota Rovermainia crowd despite tuning and calling on their published frequencies. Many of them I never heard at all. Bruce W9FZ/R stands out as the most consistent, easily found on his published frequency with a good ear for a weak one off the back. I believe we worked in every grid he stopped. However on Sunday conditions were much tougher and our 2304 QSOs vanished, even though that band was working the best ever has for me (what a difference all new coax makes). And while we worked several times up to 3456 on Saturday, I did not hear W0ZQ/R even once all day Sunday despite practically haunting his contact frequency every hour. At the end conditions were so bad I barely heard K9JK/R in EN50 and 60, and could not work him on 1296. Cant complain about the results, but it sure wasnt my favorite UHF contest.

73 de Bob -- K2DRH EN41 IL